Kardinal (5 page)

GEORGE lapped up the welcome. The crowd cheered. Banners flapped. There was one depicting George as Christ, with long hair and a beard, a serene expression on his face, a halo crowning his head, and awed kids at his feet.

He nearly burst out laughing.

Fools, he thought.

He came to the microphone and quieted the crowd, thanking them for the welcome. The day grew darker. Night was coming. The time of vampires.

He scanned the area.

Outside the park perimeter, police loitered. They mingled uncomfortably with the black-clad Nebuchadnezzar militia George had formed “to protect humans and vampires”. The militia sported the red flesh of the vampire trinity on their uniforms to protect them from the undead.

Police and government had opposed the militia when it was formed. But George argued they were necessary to keep the peace. The police, he claimed, had been infiltrated by supporters of the “Lawtonites”. They were sympathetic, he said, to Jake Lawton and the foreign gangs that had led the war against the vampires in February.

As soon as George started to speak, the crowd was in awe. These people were looking for a saviour. They were desperate. You could spin them any old yarn, and if you told them you were going to transform their lives, they’d believe it. George merely told the people what they wanted to hear, and a few things they needed to hear. He started now on the “vampires are our friends” speech.

“We destroyed their country. How would you feel if someone destroyed ours? Remember, the vampires are only defending themselves. We are the aggressors. Not them. They are defenders. But the truth, the truth that has been hidden from you by the authorities, is that we can live side by side with vampires. This is what the vampires want. They don’t want to harm us. It is true, some people have tried to manipulate the species for their own ends. There were malign forces who distributed drugs some years ago, creating a violent sub-species of vampire. And only this year, as you all know, London’s water network was poisoned. It has caused much illness, many deaths, and terrible suffering. But the men who committed these criminal acts, the men who poisoned your children’s drinking water, are allied with the likes of the murderer Jake Lawton and the illegal immigrant Kwan Mei and her army of foreign invaders.”

The crowd cheered.

George nodded and looked mournful. But inside he was laughing – at his own lies and how the crowd fell for them. He could almost taste the power. He salivated. His heart thundered and his loins simmered. He’d have to pay that Jade girl a visit when he got off the stage. He felt violently excited and wanted to run riot on her body.

“On Thursday, in just two days, Britain votes for a new government. The country is in ruins, brought to its knees by aggressors like Jake Lawton – who has now abandoned these shores – and cowards like Elizabeth Wilson, who has allowed this violence to spread. They have fed you lies. They have led you into an illegal war against a unique species. I say it again: we can live side by side with vampires. Human and vampires are biological cousins. Only a little DNA separates us. They, like every other living thing, have a right to share this earth with us. We protect pandas and polar bears, and today I say: let’s protect the vampire.”

More cheers came from the crowd. The night approached. Vampires stirred in their hiding places.

“I dream of a Britain,” continued Fuad, “where vampire and human live side by side. They don’t want to kill us. They don’t want to feed on us. They are our friends. They have emotions like we do. They love. They feel fear. They feel anger. They want to protect their kind, like we do. So, on Thursday, I urge you to vote United. Vote United for a Great Britain. Vote United for peace, for water, for food, for jobs, for education – vote United!”

After his speech, they applauded for ten minutes. They chanted his name – “George! George! George!” – and they waved their banners. He left the stage, waving at the horde. And when he turned his back, he winked at a Nebuchadnezzar in the wings.

“Went well,” George told him.

The man scowled.

“What is it?” said George.

“You’ve got some guests in your dressing room.”

“Who?”

“Unhappy ones.”

DAVID Murray, nearly fourteen but older than his years, barged through the Hyde Park crowd as it started to disperse.

The people were excited. They jabbered and gossiped. They were full of love for George Fuad. They were full of hate for Jake Lawton.

David’s fury grew. He was already angry. He’d been angry for years. He had been ten when all this started – a ten-year-old boy whose childhood was stolen, whose family was destroyed.

He’d lost his father and his brother to the vampire plague. His mother, who was hardly a mum before all this had started, had disappeared. He’d not seen her in months.

And now his friend, Jake Lawton, who was like a father and brother to David, was also missing – and worse than that, Jake was hated by the people he’d saved.

David kept moving. He was heading towards the stage. He elbowed his way through the crowds. He kept a tight grip on the strap of his rucksack, which contained stakes and a hammer. Under his jacket, tucked into his belt, he had a gun. He was planning to shoot George Fuad with it.

Someone touched his arm.

He wheeled in panic, ready to lash out.

It was Kwan Mei. He’d forgotten that she’d been with him in the park. Forgotten that she’d had to listen to Fuad insulting her in public, calling her an enemy of Britain.

Mei was eighteen. She was from China. She’d arrived in Britain earlier that year. She’d come hoping for a better life. But she had no idea that she, and the other migrants, were being trafficked into the country as food for vampires. Jake Lawton and Aaliyah Sinclair saved Mei’s life on Ramsgate harbour. Since then, the Chinese girl had been committed to helping Jake defeat the vampires.

She had built an army of migrants in the north of England and marched them to London, where they had battled the vampires a few months previously.

Mei was brave. She wanted to save Britain. It was her home now, whatever people like Fuad said.

Now she said, “Vampires here.”

“Yeah, so?”

“We kill them, David.”

“I’m killing George Fuad.”

“Waste time. Kill the vampires.”

David looked around nervously. He didn’t want the dwindling crowd to hear them talk. They were among enemies.

He leaned in to Mei and said, “It’s not a waste of time. Not for me. It’ll make me feel better.”

“But not country.”

“It might make the country feel better. At least he won’t win the election.”

“They choose someone else like him. Make no difference. Without George Fuad, vampires will still be strong. Without vampires, George Fuad will be weak. We kill vampires.”

“You kill the vampires, Mei. I will kill Fuad.”

He started to walk towards the stage.

Mei grabbed his arm again.

“What?” he said.

“You are good vampire killer,” she told him. “Like Jake was. You are like young Jake.”

He looked at her face. She was really pretty. She stared right at him, her brown eyes shining.

Mei had been a good friend to him. He liked her. A lot. But he was embarrassed. He always blushed when he thought about her in
that
way. He was too young to be her boyfriend. Just a kid to her. And she was friendly with a young Turkish guy named Ediz Ün. He was part of her army. A nice bloke. He was about twenty and a brave fighter.

“But not always like Jake,” said Mei.

He stepped away from her, turning his back. He knew what she was going to say. She said it anyway, loudly: “He never put people in danger. He never use human as bait.”

David whirled to face her, trying to make her shut up. Some of the crowd remained, despite the advancing darkness. They looked up as Mei shouted.

“Be quiet,” he said.

“You have bad in you, David.”

“I have anger in me.”

“Why?”

“You know how much I’ve suffered.” He was nearly in tears.

“You know how much
I
suffer.”

He stomped towards the stage.

“I wait for you here,” said Mei.

He raised his hand to acknowledge her and kept walking.

He slipped his hand inside his jacket and felt for the comforting butt of the handgun. It would be of no use against vampires, but its bullets would finish off George Fuad and any other Neb who tried to stop David.

He wasn’t worried about vampires. He was protected. He wore the red mark of the Nebuchadnezzars, set in a ring. Jake had stolen it from a Neb years ago.

David cried as he walked, thinking of his dad, his brother, his mum, everyone who had died during the plague.

He slipped behind the stage area. It was dark. A maze of passageways weaved around the compound. There were trailers and mobile TV studios. There were trucks and cars. The smell of piss came from a row of portable toilets. The murmur of voices could be heard. A generator hummed.

David wiped his eyes.

If any of his enemies saw him crying, they’d laugh at him.

He sneaked along the side of a truck. He came to a dogleg and peeked around the corner. There were gazebos on either side of the walkway. Tables and chairs had been stacked up in the gazebo on the left. The smell of food lingered.
The canteen
, David thought. He walked around the corner and made his way down the walkway, trying to be light on his feet over the wooden planks laid on the ground.

He saw figures in the gazebos, and they were clearing away furniture. They ignored him. Must have thought he was just another worker going about his business.

He turned another corner, and before him stood a clearing. At the far end was parked an impressive trailer, gleaming silver and red in the moonlight. It had eight wheels and a cab for a driver. Something jerked in David’s belly. He knew instinctively that George Fuad was inside the trailer.

He stepped forward.

A hand fell on his shoulder and dragged him back.

He spun round.

A big man in a black bomber jacket scowled at him.

Pinned to the man’s lapel was a scrap of red material.

“You got ID?” said the big man.

David showed his ring. “I’m one of you. I’m a fan of Mr Fuad’s. I’d like to see him.”

The big man creased his brow.

“Can I see him?” said David.

“What’ve you got in the ruck sack, son?”

“Sandwiches.”

“Sandwiches?”

“Yes, lunch. For the rally today.”

“Oh yeah? Show me.”

David hesitated. He was cold inside. He tried to maintain his smile, but his face was starting to quiver. What would Jake do in this situation? He knew what Jake would do. David reached inside his jacket. But the big man was too quick. He slapped David around the head. The boy fell, his scalp stinging.

“Right, you little shit,” said the big man, drawing out a billy club from inside his bomber jacket. “You’re going to get a hiding before I grant you your wish to see Mr Fuad. But I don’t think he’s going to sign any autographs.”

The big man lurched forward, as if he were toppling.

He would fall right on top of David and crush him.

David covered his head and waited for the impact.

THE vampire said, “Without that red mark you’d be food, Georgie. Nothing but food.”

“Don’t call me Georgie, sunshine, or I’ll have you crucified in Hyde Park, and you can wait for dawn.”

The vampire baulked. It hissed, bearing its fangs.

George recognized the bloodsucker. It used to be a pop singer when it had been human. It might have been called Ben, and his band, George remembered, was The Eclipse. They once had a No.1 record and were second or third on one of those TV talent shows. Ben had been in his early twenties when he became a vampire. He still looked a little like a pop star. Just a little. His T-shirt, which might have been trendy once, was ripped and soiled by his victims’ blood.

George surveyed the room. Ten vampires had been waiting for him when he got back to the trailer.

He warned them, “I’ll have you all crucified. Or better, impaled. Just like old Vlad used to do, eh.”

They hissed at him in unison, some backing away.

He turned his back and started to fork the Chinese takeaway on a plate. The odour of sweet and sour sauce saturated the room. As he salivated over the meal, he heard the vampires shuffle closer. But they would not dare attack him, because he wore the mark.

George stuffed a chicken ball and some fried rice into his mouth and, as he chewed, said to the vampires, “You have to be patient. I know you want to kill. I know you need to kill. But if you don’t do it reasonably for a while, there will be a war again.”

“We don’t care about war,” said the pop-star vampire. “We care about blood.”

“You’ll have plenty of it. We’ll harvest it for you. But you can’t just kill randomly just now. Eventually, you will run out of humans. You know how this works – we run the country, you keep us in power. We control the population, provide you with food. In return, the stocks never run out and you never, ever die.” He went back to his takeaway. He was so hungry. He scooped another fork-full into his mouth and again spoke as he chewed. “Just take what you need. No mass killings. Not like before. It will piss people off.”

“We’re still being hunted,” said the vampire. “Remnants of Kwan Mei’s army are stalking us every day while we sleep. Why can’t we fight back?”

“You will be allowed to fight – and hunt,” said George. “But you have to wait. We ain’t powerful enough just yet. But we will be. Your dream of blood will come true, brothers. You will fucking swim in it. If you behave for now, people will be more willing to accept my little fib that you mean them no harm, that your brutality stems from the need to defend yourselves against the likes of Lawton.”

The vampires hissed at the mention of Lawton’s name. He scared them. Fuad envied Lawton’s power over the undead.

“Appease us, then,” said the pop-star vampire. “Give us something while we wait. It’s not easy to be patient, you know. Not as easy as it is for humans.”

George walked through the cluster of vampires. They stank of rivers and of flesh. It made him want to puke and put him off the idea of eating his sweet-and-sour chicken. He opened the door and called for Jade. The blonde girl appeared from a nearby tent. She looked scared.

“P-please, Mr Fuad, don’t – ”

“I won’t. Honest. I won’t hurt you, Jade. I want to apologize, that’s all.”

She was thinking about it. But then she approached. George quickly stepped out of the trailer. He grabbed the girl and tore the red mark from her pullover. Before she could respond, he shoved her into the trailer and slammed the door shut.

From inside, she shrieked.

“Don’t say I never give you anything,” said George quietly and walked away.